A North Canterbury action group is taking their regional council to the Environment Court over inaction to remove dumped tyres in Amberly, which could continue to burn for weeks.
The pile of tyres has been the target of a spate of arson attacks in the last three years, with police charging a 63-year-old man with arson yesterday.
Accountability Action says the attacks could have been prevented but it’s the council’s inaction in the last four years that allowed three fires, two of which were arson, to occur.
Used tyres have been building up on the patch of land for years, and up until last August, locals had been trying to sort it out for themselves.
“We’d established a clear disposal programme for end of life tyres that could service the South Island beyond this tyre pile,” Accountability Action founder Julia McLean said.
The fire continues to burn at a controversial site in Amberley. (Source: Other)
Residents say there’s been little action by Environment Canterbury since they took over, five months ago.
Nevertheless, the council says that’s not the case.
“We were on literally the cusp of a plan. We’ve been working with other parties including the landowners and that was only weeks away from actually resolving and having the tyres removed,” Environment Canterbury’s Andrew Arps told 1 NEWS.
Those changes could now be months away with Fire and Emergency New Zealand unable to tackle the recent blaze, due to fears it could contaminate ground water.
The fire’s been contained, but crews will continue monitoring it, with the blaze potentially taking weeks to burn out.
According to area commander Mike Balmer, the incident is new territory for FENZ, who have never dealt with this scale of fire involving tyres before.
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